


Five Times Aslan Got Tummyrubs

by kalelle



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)
Genre: Fluff Alert, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-24
Updated: 2011-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-23 00:59:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/244505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalelle/pseuds/kalelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even lions need cuddles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Aslan Got Tummyrubs

Lucy

Lucy is the most comfortable around Aslan at first. She is a child, and he is big, and fluffy, and his voice is soothing, and she gets the feeling that he loves her. She immediately takes to him, and refuses to leave his side unless it can be helped. She is a bright little ball of energy, even amidst a war. 

Aslan wishes that she didn't have to be drawn into conflict. A child shouldn't have to see war, shouldn't have to see so many bodies. But Lucy is surprisingly okay with it, she compartmentalizes it, or maybe she's so young she doesn't understand. But whatever the case, she is still just as bright on the other side of the battle. 

After the battle, after Jadis is dead and Edmund healed, after everyone is healed, Lucy seeks Aslan out. She makes a high sound like a bird as she throws her tiny, fragile self at him, clings to his fur, and he thinks that maybe she's upset, but she's just hugging him, and he obligingly drops to the ground so that she can fully entangle her hands in his fur and embrace him. He purrs soft and pleased as she scratches through his mane at his neck, ears, chest, and laughing playfully, he rolls over and she scratches at his tummy. 

It's not his most dignified moment, but Lucy is just so cute, and even magical otherwordly lions need tummyrubs.

Susan

Susan is rapidly becoming too old and a little too jaded to belong in Narnia. It makes Aslan sad, but there is nothing to be done about it. She's here, among the lands that she ruled for nearly a lifetime, and yet still her belief in the place wavers. Soon, she will forget all about Narnia, her logic based mind simply unable to reconcile it's existence to the world that she is from. 

The eve before she is to leave, Aslan can feel it in his bones, he goes to her. She is beautiful, and strong, and she will do well in her world. This is goodbye. She's sitting by the fire in the chambers she is sharing with her sister, staring at the flame. She must understand too, that she is leaving forever. 

Aslan lowers himself beside her, drops his chin to his paws. She's shaking a little when she reaches out and gently touches his hand, strokes down along his nose, behind his ears. She smooths down his mane, and starts to cry. He rolls slightly, his back pressed along her side as she strokes the fur on his shoulder, leg, down to his tummy. 

He wishes that he could offer more than a little mindless comfortable, but this is Susan's choice. This is the best he can do. 

Peter

Peter is and always has been difficult. He second-guesses those around him, especially Lucy, alternately clashes with and completely agrees with Susan, often getting the appropriate time for each switched, and he tries to dominate Edmund in a way that there is no need for. He even locks horns with Caspian whenever he can, to the detriment of everyone around. Aslan thinks of him as a bit of a problem child.

Peter has the capacity to be great, he's been great before, but it took a lifetime of learning, and more than a few violent shut-downs from his siblings. He took the transition back to childhood hard, to go from being a man is such high respect to someone who is hardly looked at or listened to. Aslan understands Peter, even if Peter doesn't understand himself. 

Peter, like Susan, will not return to Narnia. This is not because he has chosen not to return, this is because if he comes back only to leave again, it will break him. He is unable to keep switching back and forth without serious damage. He cannot choose where he wants to be; on one hand, in Narnia he has respect, but it is long since he earned that respect, and he is unsure of himself now, and on the other hand, he has no respect back in England, but infinite potential to demand and work for it. 

Aslan makes the choice to send him back with a heavy heart. He misses Peter, who has moments where he is so close to lionhood, he could be a shape shifter. Aslan can't entirely let go of Peter, though, he misses him. He visits him in his dreams. Peter dreams of both worlds, he dreams of himself as a boy, and as a man. He rarely dreams of himself as how he is. Aslan is looking at a child, only a little older than Lucy was when she first climbed through the wardrobe.

The Child Peter recognizes Aslan, and he runs to him, sobbing. He buries his face in Aslan's neck and cries these heart wrenching sobs, and Aslan hooks a large paw around him, a solid weight on his shoulders. They drop to the ground, and indistinguishable necessity in this dream, no definition, simply there. The Child Peter pets Aslan, curling up into his side, down his flank, across his back, along his neck, twines his fingers into the fur on his tummy and tries to soothe Aslan in the hopes that it will soothe himself.   
   
Peter wakes with tears on his face and warm hands, and Aslan says goodbye to another dear one.

Edmund

Aslan has come to love Edmund almost as much as he does Lucy. Edmund has walked a hard path, and emerged better for it, and Aslan feels a selfish happiness in the fact that Edmund will always need Narnia. Edmund found love in Narnia, and it anchors him here, to send him back to England would be a cruelty. Edmund has suffered enough.

He watches Edmund become a great king, and disappear, watches him come back, and leave again. He struggles with the change like Peter does, and he struggles with the fact that Peter struggles. And when returns again, Aslan can see clear as day that his affections for Caspian are deeper than that of allies. And Aslan is happy for them, because if anyone deserves to be happy, if anyone has worked for this, it's Edmund. 

So Aslan watches Lucy and Eustace go home, and he turns around, and watches Edmund and Caspian go home. The logical conclusion to this is for Aslan to go to his home, too, and to let them lie. But he's never been that great at just walking away. He whispers onto the Dawn Treader, and find Edmund still awake in Caspian's embrace. Edmund is started, almost starts to move, he's not sure if he's dreaming, if he should pull the covers over his head and hide. 

Aslan rumbles soft, and Edmund does the only logical thing when a lion walks in on you and your new boyfriend. He pats the bed in a quiet invitation for Aslan to join them. There's more than enough room, and Aslan obliges, lying next to Edmund who sleepily reaches out to pet the great lion. Aslan get's comfortable, and there's really nothing to say, this is strange, but pleasant, feels like home for all involved who are conscious., and Edmund's hand on his tummy feels nice.

Aslan doesn't even care about reputation any more if he did in the first place, he can have his dignity and his tummyrubs. 

Caspian

Caspian wakes in the night to find a lion in his bed. He thinks, belatedly, that maybe he should be worried. Maybe he should be alarmed. Maybe he should be just plain uncomfortable. He is mostly naked, with his mostly naked love in his arms, not entirely covered, and there is a lion in his bed. Not just any lion, no, the closest thing to a deity this world has. In his bed. 

Aslan is dozing, half between awake and asleep, mostly aware of Edmund's hand on him, slightly more aware of Caspian's wakefulness. It's not hugely concerning, the young king is level headed in a way that none of the Pevensie's alone could manage. He doesn't imagine a scene, he doesn't imagine a loss of respect. He doesn't expect the hand that brushes against Edmunds and joins in the tummyrubs, but it's welcome.

He's glad for this, that Narnia is in such good hands. Between Caspian and Edmund, they'll do great things. They'll build a great Narnia, where no one lives in fear. They'll be happy kings, and happy kings make happy kingdoms. And Aslan is glad for this. 

He slumbers with the kings, soothed by fingers entwined in his fur.


End file.
